Are some ebay sales a way of money laundering??

[Jayfee]

Thought I mght sell some of my old dvds. Looked on ebay. Apparently some... including e.g. Mrs Browns boys, The Bill..have sold for thousands. Surely this has to be a money laundering scam????

Have they actually sold for that amount, or were they just listed for it? I ask because some sellers 'place mark' when an item is out of stock by keeping it listed but putting a ludicrously inflated price on it.

No. Paypal, who organise the payments for Ebay, is actually run by several huge banks and they all keep an eye out for ML. It’s the small repeated payments (10-50 pounds) for relatively low value products that are the most concerning - layering. Paypal and Ebay also keep an eye out for sales of materials that can be used in certain terrorist activities.

Mrs Brown's Boys is so bad

Well I am amazed..who would pay more than a thousand pounds for a dvd?? these are marked as sold prices. very odd imo

Some of those sales might not have been legit - eg the buyer never paid for whatever reason and the item was relisted (with a different price)

any Mrs Brown's Boys which is marked as sold is clearly dodgy.

I always thought those high prices where typos

When you reach a certain amount of sales through PayPal (10k I think but might have changed) PayPal can freeze your account until you prove who you are. Something to do with money laundering laws. I'm a bit vague as it was a while ago now but I had to produce proof of address and photo ID.

I have had a quick look and I can't see any having sold for such a high price. Can you post a link please?

You'd have to pay ME a thousand quid to watch Mrs Brown's Boys.

This is the highest one (Mrs. Brown) in completed items, it is not an ordinary sale, it has sold for a high price.

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VIP-Visit-to-Mrs-Browns-Boys-on-Tour-BBC-Children-in-Need/332443320362?hash=item4d672a802a:g:wzkAAOSwywRaBEzx

Often there will be items that are out of stock and showing as a number sold. The selling price will be for the 'last one' and it will be for a ridiculously high price because there are none left in stock, the seller is saving their place in the listings because they need a high no. of sales on the listing in order to keep the placing in the Best Match search. At some stage in the future they will either get more stock and change the price, therefore keeping the rating and continue selling, or they will change it for another item for the same reason.

I would be interested to see which items you are referring to @Jayfee

Mrs Brown's Boys is brilliant!

I do find people who slag it off have NEVER actually seen it!

PayPal can and do freeze your account after a certain amount has gone through it- anything over 5k can look a bit dubious especially if it's repeated small transactions.

If you get closer to 10k though and a lot of your payments are goods and services they look very closely at what you are doing and will ask questions like who are you, are you running a business e.t.c.

It's a frigging pain in the a rse when they do it to you

It's a stock thing. Rather than end a listing when the item is sold out sellers raise the price up to something ridiculous so people won't buy. When the item is back in stock price is returned to normal.
Saves relisting fees. Nothing more sinister than that.

The seller on that link is "bbcchildrenin_need"

Was it a charity auction maybe

Look at the description, it was 4 tour tickets

Yes that one was a charity auction, it has the little bow thingy on the top, one of the reasons I said it wasn't an ordinary auction, it was the highest priced completed listing.

Not sure whether the OP has just skimmed some listings without reading the details, I didn't search live listings only completed ones.

I saw a listing for a pair of used pants listed as a sex aid for £1000, wonder what they would make of that. I did report it but didn't look to see if it had been removed.

BTW I wasn't looking for sex aids, I was browsing the weird stuff category which used to be interesting and full of weird stuff, it is now full of plastic tat and dirty drawers.

Toad Yes! I too mourn the deterioration of 'weird stuff' from quirky and amusing to sleazy and tatty .